Russia will send anti-aircraft system to Syria despite Israeli threats (1 Viewer)

[wino]

Russia will go ahead with plans to deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria despite Western opposition and Israel saying it would “know how to act” if Syrians receive the advanced weapons system.
Moscow said that by sending in the anti-aircraft system, it would deter “hotheads” intent on intervention in the two-year-old conflict, the deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also accused the European Union of “throwing fuel on the fire” by letting its own arms embargo on the Syrian opposition expire.
The comments came after Israel said it will know how to act if Russia sends the system, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday.

Yaalon’s remarks appeared to contradict Israel’s air force chief, who said last week the shipment of S-300 missiles was “on its way” to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is battling a popular uprising that has turned into a civil war.

Israel is alarmed by the prospect of Russia supplying advanced weapon systems to Syria, saying such arms could end upin the hands of arch-foe Iran or the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

“I can say that the shipments are not on their way yet,”Yaalon told reporters. “I hope they will not leave, and if, God forbid, they reach Syria, we will know what to do,” he said, without disclosing how he came by the information.

Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the Syrian conflict, Western and Israeli sources say it has launched airstrikes inside Syria to destroy weapons it believed were destined for Hezbollah guerrillas allied to Assad.

Russia’s foreign minister said on May 13 that Moscow had no new plans to sell the S-300 to Syria but left open the possibility of delivering such systems under an existing contract.

Israeli Strategic Affairs and Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said the S-300 can reach deep into the Jewish state and threaten flights over its main commercial airport near Tel Aviv. He said he hoped Russia would cancel the deal.

“This is still unfortunately the plan, and we are very concerned,” Steinitz told reporters in Jerusalem. “This is a kind of encouragement, a kind of support for a brutal regime which is totally wrong, also from a moral point of view.”

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-system-to-Syria-despite-Israeli-threats.html

Russia V Israel ? And China sits back rubbing it's chop stick together.

 

[MajorWhiteBoy]

that whole situation is getting nasty as fuck. i feel so sorry for the folks who live there. no chance at peace, just pawns in a game.

 

[wino]

I agree and it gets worse .. .not just for the immediate region.

France is testing samples of suspected chemical weapon elements used against Syrian rebel fighters and smuggled out by reporters from Le Monde newspaper and will divulge the results in the next few days, a senior French official said on Monday.

The official also said Paris recently carried out its own tests on other samples it had obtained that had indicated the use of battlefield gas.

"Samples were handed to our intelligence services by the Le Monde journalists," the senior official said on condition of anonymity. "Tests will be done on these samples and the results made known in the coming days."

The newspaper, in a report issued on its website earlier on Monday, said one of its photographers had suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days after an attack on April 13 on the Jobar front, just inside central Damascus.

President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels fighting to oust him have accused each other of using chemical weapons. U.N. investigators have been ready for weeks, but diplomatic wrangling and safety concerns have delayed their entry into Syria.

Undercover in and around the Damascus area for two months alongside Syrian rebels, a Le Monde reporter and photographer said they witnessed battlefield chemical attacks and also talked to doctors and other witnesses about their aftermath.

The French official, who was speaking after talks among U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris, said the three ministers had agreed that any use of chemical weapons would be a game changer.

"The question of chemical weapons can create a different situation because the divisions on that are not the same as on the Syrian conflict," the official said.

"If we have enough elements that converge to say that chemical weapons were used, then we will have to take a decision with our partners to examine the possible consequences."

Syria, which is not a member of the anti-chemical weapons convention, is believed to have one of the world's last remaining stockpiles of undeclared chemical arms.

The French official said the three men discussed the chemical weapons issue and the latest developments on the Syrian peace talks over dinner in a Paris restaurant after Lavrov and Kerry met earlier in the day.

"All three countries want the talks to take place," the official said. "We move forward, but it remains very difficult. If we want to meet by June 10 in Geneva, then there has to be serious advance. We're hoping as soon as possible, but there are a number of subjects that still need to be resolved."

The proposed conference reflects the first serious diplomatic effort in nearly a year to end the conflict in which more than 80,000 people are believed to have died and millions have fled their homes.

But the official said the opposition coalition still refused to negotiate with names put forward by Assad's government, there had yet to be an accord on whether Iran or Saudi Arabia would be represented at the talks, and what exactly the conference aimed to achieve.

 

[MajorWhiteBoy]

Well, for all our shortcomings, im glad i was born in America. Im sure Australians feel the same, and a whole host of other stable nations. It would suck balls to try to have a family or a life in those bass ackward shithole war zones.

 

[mrln]

just hope they also don't "get into the wrong hands" either.